How to Create Team Building Exercises

"Sometimes I feel like I'm working at Dunder Mifflin.  Today I'm not doing no work cause I'll be dancing (and this isn't Scranton)."  That is not a tweet or Facebook status from one of your disgruntled employees.  It's a line from the spoof video of Lady Gaga's "Telephone" that The Go Game did for the launch of their new team building product Company Quad. But if you thought that quote was something one of your employees would say, that's a sure sign you need to try some team building activities.

Company Quad brings the best of social media and casual gaming into the office with highly entertaining bite-sized games to be played by your company only. The game is loaded with weekly missions that are designed to foster creativity, encourage collaboration and entertaining.   "Our belief is people are naturally drawn to socialize online these days. We think you can harness that inclination," says co-creator of the San Francisco based company, Ian Fraser. With Company Quad the staffers will be collecting points, posting photos and sharing missions, all in the name of your company, Fraser says. "This promotes company cohesiveness and corporate culture."

If you've noticed your staffers taking more and personal days off or there's a general lack of interest in the task at hand, that may be a sign that your corporate culture is beginning to deteriorate. Team building exercises allow management and staff to forget about hierarchies and socialize informally. They can also be used to delve into more serious issues such as learning problem solving techniques and improving communication skills to help bring out and maintain smarter and harder working employees.

This guide on how to implement team building exercises into your business offers benefits for both management and staff to help foster creative thinking or as a way to remind staffers how much you value their work. In the end, experts here believe your business will be much better positioned for growth in the long term.

How to Create Team Building Exercises:  Benefits of Team Building Exercises

Team building is a way of helping a group of individuals to function as a cohesive unit, where members are valued, respected, and focused on a common set of goals, says David Greenberg, founder of www.teambuilding123.com based in Avondale Estates, Georgia. Many team building exercises can be implemented by you or your management team, while the more complex exercises should likely be turned over to a third party to implement. Adventure Associates, Inc. (AAI) in Washington, D.C, facilitates corporate team building adventures and team building workshops.   Ed Tilley, director of AAI says there are few core reasons to undertake team building exercises such as relationship building, celebrating success, and practicing team skills.

Relationship Building: According to Tilley, relationship building activities are a great way, for example, to bring outside salespeople together in one location with office staff to get to know one another better. Along those same lines team building offers colleagues who work together every day an opportunity to interact informally and learn more about each other on a personal level, Tilley says.

Celebrating Success: A kind word never hurt anyone and rewarding your employees for a job well done on a big project or reaching a company milestone, Tilley says, lets employees know their hard work is valued.

Practicing Team Skills: These programs enable teams to practice communication skills, learn and practice decision-making and problem-solving.

In the end, Tilley and Greenberg, agree, your team will have developed a greater awareness about their ability to problem solve and communicate effectively, get relevant work done, and make smarter decisions.  Managers should communicate an expectation that all employees should participate in team building activities, but participation should not be mandated in the employee handbook or in employee contracts.

"The executive must create a culture that fosters the above based on: his/her own behavior, creating clear expectations; building in the related processes and procedures to foster those expectations; and holding people accountable for following through," explains Dr. Jackalyn Sherriton, president of Corporate Management Developers/Health Management Consultants, Inc. (CMD/HMC) in Hollywood, Florida.

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How to Create Team Building Exercises:  Choosing the Approach

The first step in finding the right team building solution for your team starts with you analyzing the goals and objectives that have led you to this place. Then consider your budget and how it will cost to bring everyone together.

"Check the pulse of the organization," says Sherriton. "It's an opportunity to reflect on what's going well; identify what's not working and obstacles facing the company or team; and develop strategies to overcome [the obstacles]."

If you choose to facilitate an activity in the office, certified speaking professional David Greenberg's instant-download book 36 Simple-to-Conduct Team Building Games, Icebreakers, Energizers and Closing Activities is available at www.teambuilding123.com for $159.95. According to Greenberg, the book features a compilation of easy to implement team building games such as "What Should We Do About the Neighbors?"

In this exercise a team leader reads a short scenario aloud to two groups and asks participants to sit together based on the option they select –A or B. All the people who choose Option A sit in one area or at one table, all those who choose Option B sit in another area. After groups are formed the team leader reads another short script where each groups prepares a brief presentation that will persuade people from the other groups to reconsider their choices and join his group.

"While participants first think this exercise is about persuading others, it's really about listening and mutual respect, especially when you don't agree. Your meeting room will be filled with laughter as your group experiences firsthand how to increase their appreciation for each others' contributions and solve problems much quicker than ever before," says Greenberg.

A book like Glenn Parker's "Team Players and Teamwork" ($14.25) can also be purchased for in-office activities and offers team building games aimed at improving communication and team work among employees. The book uses surveys to help employees determine their personality type, strategy games and details on how to interpret game results.

Parker, a Skillman, New Jersey-based team building consultant, can bring the situations in his book to life in your office. "I often ask all team members to complete my "Parker Team Player Survey" [which] gives them a reading on their style as they work in a team environment. Each person learns their strengths and how they can increase their team effectiveness," says Parker. "We also create a team profile based on all the survey results and look at whether that profile provides clues to how the team needs to change in order to increase their overall effectiveness."